George b



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE B. CORNISH, OF .NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR REEFING SAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,491, dated'September 20, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. CORNISH, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and Improved Means of Providing for the Resting of Square Sails from the Decks of Ships or other Vessels; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference bein0` had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l, exhibits a side view of a ships topmast and of the head of the lower mast and a transverse section of the lower and top sail yards and topsail, illustrating my invention. Fig. 2, exhibits a front view of a portion of the topsail yard and topsail. Fig. 3, exhibits a plan or top view of the topsail yard and a horizontal section of the topmast. Fig. 4, exhibits a horizontal section of the sail and illustrates the method of fitting the apron to the opening therein.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

My invention consists in the arrangement as hereinafter described for the purpose of reeling square sails by rolling them upon their yards, of a single reef pennant applied in the form of a parbuckle around the middle of a yard in combination with the within described method of suspending the yard and providing` for its rolling, by which means I obtain a method of reefing from the deck of a vessel which possesses several advantages over the methods heretofore used.

My invention further consists in a certain method of fitting an apron to the central opening in the sail which is rendered necessary by my method in common with many other methods rolling the sail on the yard.

To enable others to make and use my in` Vention I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, is the lower mast; B, the topmast; F, the lower yard; G, the topsail yard; D, the topsail; and E, the apron of said sail. The yard C, is encircled at equal distances from the middle of its length with two flanged slip bands G, G, which are secured firmly to it to and which are received and fitted to rotate within the two quarter bands I'I, II, which are secured to the truss I, in the usual manner. The mode of construct-ing the slip bands G, G, is to construct a long band with four flanges a', a, a, a, and make the spaces between o, a, and a, a, constitute the slip bands and the central space between c, a, constitute a band on which the reef pennant J is wound and unwound by the rolling of the yard in its quarter bands. The flanges, a., a, a', a, serve to prevent the longitudinal movement of the yard through the quarterv bands and to prevent the reef pennant being interfered with by the quarter bands.

The truss I, is or may be of the usual construction and attached in the usual manner to a hub K, which is capable of sliding up and down and of twining on the topmast. Preventers o, Z), are applied between the truss and the hub on each side to prevent the truss moving on its swivel c, but these preventers may be removed to allow the yards to be cock billed in port.

The yard arms have secured near their extremities iianged slip bands d, d, to be received within bands e, c, which fit loosely and to which the lifts f, f, are attached and these bands c, e, have arms g, g, extending back to connect them with a spar K, which extends the whole length of the yard and which is secured to the truss, the said spar serving to keep the bands c, c, from rotating with the yard which they must not do as they and their arms serve to connect the braces of the yard, and the blocks for sheets of the sail above, and to carry other contrivances attached to the arms of an ordinary yard. The foot ropes are intended to be attached to the spar K.

L, is the halyard by which the yard is raised and lowered, attached to a yoke M, which is secured rigidly to the quarter bands II, I-I, and passing through the mast over a sheave c', and from thence to the deck in the usual manner. The reef pennant J, has one end secured to the yard between the flanges a, a, of the bands G, G, and is wound several times around the yard in a direction to pass upward in front thereof as shown in Fig. l, to and over a sheave y', in the head of the mast, from whence it passes to the deck. It may be of rope or chain but rope is perhaps the best, or at any rate equally as good as chain. The sail is attached to the yard like an ordinary sail, and has a central opening 7c, 7c, wide enough to receive both bands G, G, within it, said opening extending down to the lowest point where it is ever intended to be reefed, as in Cunninghams and other sails which roll on the yard, and it passes over the front of the yard in the opposite direction to the reef penna-nt J.

The operation of reefng and letting' out the reef of the sail is effected in the simplest possible manner, as when the end of the reef pennant which reaches near the deck is made fast, the yard is made to roll up or unroll and spread the sail by merely lowering or raising it by letting go, or hauling on the halyards. Wrhen the halyard is let go gradually the yard descends and in so doing is caused by the draft of the parbuckle-like reef pennant J, to rotate in a direction to roll up or reef the sail. Vhen the sail is reefed sufficiently the halyard is made fast again, leaving the sail perfectly taut. To take out the reef all that is necessary is to haul on the lialyard and raise the yard which is then caused to roll by the draft of the sail and-thus roll up the reef pennant.

The sail may be reefed and unreefed repeatedly without once handling the reef pennant, but as all ropes are liable to stretch by continual strain and stretch and shrink by atmospheric changes it will sometimes require setting up or slackening.

One peculiarity in the operation of this rig is that a vessel may put to sea in a gale, for when the yard to which the sail is attached has been right down and the sail furled, the sail may be set at once with a close reef while with Cunninghams and others the sail must be fully spread before it can -be reefed.

Other advantages of this rig is its simplicity and the absence of liability to get out of order. It permits also the furling of the sail on its own yard, without lowering the yard in just the same way as the old fashioned rig.

The apron E, which covers the opening la, k, in the sail is made somewhat broader than the opening 7c, 7c, and applied in front of the sail. Its lower edge is sewed to the sail and its upper edge which is kept straight by one of a series of metal slides m, m, attached to the back side of the apron is suspended by a metal yoke p, from the two quarter bands. The slides m, m, have forked ends as shown in Fig. 4t to iit the leeches n, ln, of the opening in such a manner as to prevent the latter getting out of them but yet to slide freely thereon. When the sail is being reefed the yoke p, pushes down the upper slides m, m, along the leeches n, n, one after the other commencing at the top and plaits the apron below the yard; and when the reef is taken out the yoke draws up the apron again.4

I do not claim, broadly, the rolling of the sail up on the yard, nor the rolling of the yard by reef pennants working like parbuckles, when otherwise arranged and combined than as herein described; but

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Constructing the slip bands G, Gr, in one piece with four fianges a, a, a', a the spaces between a, a, and a, a, serving as slip bands,

and the central space, between flanges a, a, serving as a band on which the reef-pennant J, is wound; said flanges serving to prevent any lateral movement of the yard and also to prevent the reef-pennant from coming into contact with and being injured by the quarter-bands H, all as herein shown and described.

GEO. B. CORNISH. fitnesses IV. TUsorr, J. W. CooMBs. 

